Fritz Machlup, An Economic Review of the Patent System (Subcomm. on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights of the S. Comm. on the Judiciary, Study No. 15, 85th Cong., 2d Sess. (Comm. Print 1958)). Reviews economic justifications for patents; famous for his statement that if we didn't have a patent system it would be irresponsible to recommend one, but since we have one, it would be irresponsible to abolish it.

Mark F. Grady & Jay I. Alexander, Patent Law and Rent Dissipation, 78 Va. L. Rev. 305 (1992). "Rent dissipation theory predicts that the courts will enforce a patent when the size of the patent rent is proportionate to the rent dissipation that the invention's technological signal would otherwise induce."

Edmund W. Kitch, Graham v. John Deere Co.: New Standards for Patents, 1966 S. Ct. Rev. 293. Discusses historical development of obviousness standard, argues that commercial success is an unreliable indicator, and notes that it might make sense for PTO to succumb to institutional pressure to grant invalid patents rather than devoting more resources to weeding out unimportant patents.

Edwin Mansfield, Mark Schwartz & Samuel Wagner, Imitation Costs and Patents: An Empirical Study,91 Econ. J. 907 (1981). One of the earliest and most comprehensive studies of the costs of imitation. Found that imitation costs were on average 65% of original innovation costs.

Commission on Revision of the Federal Court Appellate System, Structure and Internal Procedures: Recommendations for Change, reprinted in 67 F.R.D. 195 (1975). Described problems such as forum shopping in patent litigation, leading to the creation of the Federal Circuit (though it did not recommend a specialized patent court).